ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Ministry of Home Affairs
Centre releases Rs.600 crore assistance to flood-affected Kerala
NCMC reviews relief operations in Kerala
Central assistance of Rs.500 crore, as announced by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, and Rs.100 crore, announced by the Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, for flood affected Kerala has been released to the Government of Kerala today.
The National Crisis Management Committee  met for the sixth time in a row today to review the rescue & relief operations in the state. Cabinet Secretary Shri PK Sinha, chaired the meeting. The Chief Secretary of Kerala participated in the meeting via video conference and informed that the situation is now improving by and large though there are some isolated pockets still with water. Water levels are receding fast.
The Department of Food & Public Distribution has made additional allocation of 89,540 MT of rice as per State Government’s request.
The Department of Consumer Affairs, in addition to 100 MT of pulses supplied earlier, is sending additional quantities of green gram and Tur dal.
Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies have contributed Rs.25 crore to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund in Kerala. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has opened special points in the flood affected areas of the state for LPG distribution. Permission has also been granted, in coordination with the State Government, for non-certified vehicles to carry LPG cylinders. The Ministry has also made available 3.2 lakh LPG cylinders and 2.2 lakh regulators.
Railways have so far supplied 24 lakh litres of drinking water in addition to 2.7 lakh water bottles. Another 14 lakh litres water is currently available at Ernakulam. Railways has also made arrangements for supply of bed sheets and blankets. Trains on all sections have resumed. It is also transporting relief materials from various states to Kerala free of cost.
An Action Plan has been prepared for restoration of power supply in all the affected areas. 94% of telecom towers have been made functional. Power supply to telephone exchanges is being restored on priority.
The Health Ministry will supply 3 crore Chlorine tablets in addition to one crore tablets supplied earlier. 30 tonnes of bleaching powder and 1.76 lakh sanitary pads have also been sent. Additional quantities will also be sent in the next few days. No major outbreak of disease has been reported so far.
As per the State Government’s requirement, essential spices, salt, tea and coffee are also being supplied by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
The Finance Ministry has decided to waive off Customs Duty & IGST on the relief materials being imported to aid the people in the flood-affected areas in Kerala.
As the rescue operations wind down, State Administration has started de-requisitioning the teams of Defence Forces and NDRF.
The NCMC meeting was attended by Secretaries of Central Ministries including Health, Telecom, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Power, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Commerce and Textiles and Senior Officers of Defence Forces, MHA and National Disaster Management Authority .
Prime Minister's Office
PM marks 7 years of Stand Up India
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has acknowledged the role that Stand Up India initiative has played in empowering the SC/ ST communities and ensuring women empowerment. Stand Up India completes 7 years today.
The Prime Minister tweeted :
"Today we mark #7YearsofStandUpIndia and acknowledge the role this initiative has played in empowering the SC/ ST communities and ensuring women empowerment. It has also boosted the spirit of enterprise our people are blessed with."
More details at https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1913705
Special Service and Features
FESTIVAL SPECIAL PARCEL SERVICE
Chennai City Central division proudly announces that Thyagaraya Nagar Head Post Office and Mylapore Head Post have now opened an exclusively counter for “Parcel Packaging Services” for the upcoming festival season in the coming days. The specialty about the counter is that the customer who wants to send items to their relatives or friends can come with the items alone. The parcel will be packed at the office with the materials available with us like carton boxes, tape, bubble rapping, strapping etc and the same is booked anywhere in india and also to most of the foreign countries.
The cost will be collected depending on the weight & destination of each parcel. A dedicated parcel counter is setup in both the Head offices with extended working hours whenever and wherever is required as per demand. Online tracking facility also available in India Post app and also to keep customers updated about the “status, an SMS” alert would be sent soon after the delivery of the consignment.
Special Service and Features
NIT Puducherry organized the first "International Conference on intelligent Computing Technologies and Research "
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT Puducherry has organized the first “International Conference on intelligent Computing Technologies and Research , Theme: AI for Social and Society Computing” at NIT Puducherry on 24-25 March 2023. The i-COMPUTER 2023 was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Dr. K R Murali Mohan, Scientist G, HEAD, Think Tank Group, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, Presided by Chief Patron Dr. K. Sankaranarayanasamy, Director, NIT Puducherry in the presence of Patron Dr. S. Sundaravarthanan, Registrar, NIT Puducherry. The conference was organized by Dr. Venkatesan M as Chairperson.
Chief Guest Message The Conference laid the platform and brought experts & research enthusiasts together from industry and academics to showcase their cutting-edge research works in the area of AI & ML, IoT, Blockchain, Bigdata, Computer Vision, Healthcare, Immersive Technology and others to address the social and societal problems. The conference received overwhelming responses with 239 article submissions. After due double review process, 117 articles were selected for presentation, from various institutes across the country.
We have received registrations from NIT Warangal, VNIT Nagpur, VIT Vellore, VIT Chennai, VIT AP, Institute of Advanced Research Gandhinagar, Anna University, PES University, SRM Chennai, CMR University, IIUCNN Kottayam, Jain University, Cochin University, Dayananda Sagar University, DIT University and others. Registrations have been from most of the states spanning from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.
As part for the conference, Dr. K R Murali Mohan, Scientist G, HEAD, Think Tank Group, DST, Govt. of India, Dr. V L N Simhan, Southern Georgia University Statesboro, GA, USA and Prof. Jemal Abawajy, Deakin University, Australia will be addressing the participants. We hope the participants will gain immensely from the technical wisdom of the keynote speakers and the conference will be an arena for networking and exchange of research ideas.
On the same occasion, the chief guest Dr. K R Murali Mohan, Scientist G, HEAD, Think Tank Group, DST, Govt. of India, inaugurated an advanced computing machine NVIDIA DGX A100 AI Server  and expressed his happiness by congratulating Dept. of CSE and NIT Puducherry for building a much-needed infrastructure for computing.
Prime Minister's Office
PM lauds persistent efforts to make India’s defence sector self-reliant
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has lauded the persistent efforts being undertaken to make India’s defence sector self-reliant. He remarked that the boost to self-reliance in defence also reaffirms our faith in Indian talent.
Sharing a tweet by Union Minister for Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh about the persistent efforts being undertaken to make India’s defence sector self-reliant by clearing proposals worth Rs 70,500 crores and procurement worth over Rs 2.71 lakh crore cleared in FY23 where 99% to be sourced from Indian industries, the Prime Minister tweeted;
“A boost to self-reliance in defence, also reaffirming our faith in Indian talent.”
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Group of students from Indian Institute of Democratic Leadership call on MoS Dr Jitendra Singh
Youth will play a decisive role in the making of ‘New India’, says Minister
A group of students from Indian Institute of Democratic Leadership , Maharashtra, met the Union Minister of State  of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region , MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh here today. The group included 18 students from 10 states belonging to the Post-Graduate programme in Leadership, Politics and Governance. This is the second batch of students from the institute. The first batch of 32 students had called on the Minister in March last year. The students shared their experiences of interaction with leaders of various political parties.
While interacting with the students, Dr Jitendra Singh said the youth will play a decisive role in the future roadmap of the country and in the making of ‘New India’. They will play important role in all spheres, including political, economic and social areas, he added. He said that the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken various initiatives for the development of youth. The Minister added that the youth have been inspired to take part in the decision making process in the democratic set up, which he termed as a watershed moment for the country. Dr Singh said that 65% of the Indian population is below the age of 35 years, so addressing their aspirations and channelizing their energy in the right direction is very important.
Dr Jitendra Singh also spoke about the role of Government in addressing the development issues in the North East Region of India and Jammu & Kashmir. He said that various schemes have been launched by the Government to benefit the youth of these regions. He mentioned about Start-up India, Stand-up India programme of the Government, among others.
He added that due to the increasing internet connectivity in the recent times, youth in today’s world are more aware about the developments around them and have the advantage of this informed era as compared to their previous generations. He also appreciated that the youth should go on field visits and understand the problems/issues concerned with their areas.
He encouraged the organisers to take feedback from the previous batch and make the necessary modifications in the curriculum. The Minister said that it is important to have an understanding of different ideologies, which comes with exposure to diversified groups.
Ministry of Education
Special Campaign 2.0 for Disposal of Pending Matters  and Swachhata Drive being conducted in Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
1,051 Cleanliness Campaigns successfully conducted, 27,162 sq. ft. of space freed, 25,846 Public Grievances and Appeals redressed, 4,750 files weeded out and Rs.25,69,693/- revenue earned by selling scrap disposal during the period of December 2022 to August 2023
The Special Campaign 2.0 for Disposal of Pending Matters  and Swachhata Drive is going on in full swing in the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
The objectives of the campaign are to minimize pendency, institutionalize swachhata, strengthen internal monitoring mechanism, train officers in records management, digitize physical records for improved records management and to bring all Ministries/Departments on one single digital platform: www.pgportal.gov.in/scdpm.
During aforesaid period, 11000 physical files were reviewed and 864 files were weeded out, 61380 Public Grievances and Appeals were redressed, 35 Cleanliness Campaigns were conducted, 5054 sq. ft. space had been freed and Rs.24,49,293/- had been earned from scrap disposal.
Ministry of Micro,Small & Medium Enterprises
MSME Minister Narayan Rane calls for developing Coir Industry in Konkan and North-Eastern region
Union Minister for MSME Shri Narayan Rane has called for developing Coir Industry in Konkan, North and North-Eastern region of the country and expand the market network. Addressing the 238th Meeting of the Coir Board in Gujarat’s Kevadia today, the Minister said, Konkan region has great opportunities for development of Coir Industry, as its coastal areas have good coconut crop.
Shri Rane informed that India contributes 70% of the global production of Coir and 80% of the world trade in Coir products. Coir industry provides employment to more than 7.3 lakh people in rural areas, 80% of which are women and it is utmost essential to make it comparative, self-sustainable and capable of providing employment to the rural folk. He said, the acceptability of Coir products has increased rapidly due to its 'environment friendly' image. During the year 2020-21, the export of coir and coir products reached the level of Rs 3778.97 crore, with a growth rate of 17% in quantity and 37% in value, despite COVID adversities. He added that Coir has shown positive trend even during the years of economic recession.
The Minister said, Coir Industry is a traditional, labor intensive, agro-based and export oriented industry. The industry converts waste into wealth as the raw material used is throw away waste. The Minister called for undertaking skill up-gradation, technology development, process improvement, infrastructure assistance, credit availability, marketing efficiency to accelerate the overall development of coir industry in the country.
Shri Rane said, the Government is committed to promoting growth and development of the MSME Sector, including Khadi, Village and Coir Industries. He said, MSMEs not only play crucial role in providing more employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital cost than large industries but also help in industrialization of rural and backward areas, thereby, reducing regional imbalances, assuring more equitable distribution of national income and wealth. MSMEs are complementary to large industries as ancillary units and this sector contributes enormously to the socio-economic development of the country.
Ministry of Science & Technology
Indian & EU agree to renew Agreement S&T Co-operation for 5 years
India & the European Union agreed to renew the Agreement on Scientific cooperation for the next five years, 2020-2025, at the 15th India-EU Summit.
India EU summit meeting was led by Prime MinisterSri Narendra Modi from India’s side, while the European Union delegation was headed by European Council President Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the virtual summit.
With the agreement to renew adopted, both India and the EU agreed to further collaborate in research and innovation based on the principles of mutual benefit and reciprocity, as established in the India-EU Agreement on Science and Technology concluded in 2001, which expired on May 17.
"Both parties are committed to launch the renewal procedure in time and acknowledge 20 years of robust cooperation on research and innovation," the joint statement said.
This will help to enhance research and innovation cooperation in different fields like Water, Energy, Healthcare, Agritech & Bioeconomy, Integrated Cyber-Physical Systems, Information and Communication Technologies, Nanotechnology, and clean technologies, etc. It will also strengthen the institutional linkages in research, exchange of researchers, students, startups and attract co-investment of resources for co-generation of knowledge.
Earlier, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences chaired a meeting via video conferencing to review India - EU S&T agreement with all Indian stakeholders – Department of Science & Technology , Department of Biotechnology , Ministry of Earth Sciences  & CSIR.
The review meeting,which suggested the renewal of the agreement on S&T co-operation between the countries, recalled that in the last 5 years, 73 joint research projects have been implemented, resulting in around 200 joint research publications & filing of few patents. There have also been 500 exchange visits of researchers & students in this period. The 5 years have seen joint activities in knowledge generation, human capacity development, technology development, technology deployment in Water, Health, Material  & Bioeconomy.
The review meeting was attended by Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary DST, Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary DBT, Professor Shekhar Mande, DG CSIR, Parvinder Maini, Scientist MoES, N Madhusudan Reddy, Scientific Councellor, Embassy of India in Berlin, Dr. SK Varshney & other concerned officials.
Ministry of Tourism
Fifteen destinations have been identified by the Government for development of tourism under the Ramayana Circuit
Ramayana Circuit is one of the fifteen thematic circuits identified for development under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of Ministry of Tourism. The Ministry has initially identified fifteen destinations including Sitamarhi, Bihar for development under the Ramayana Circuit theme namely Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur & Chitrakoot , Sitamarhi, Buxar & Darbhanga , Chitrakoot , Mahendragiri , Jagdalpur , Nashik & Nagpur , Bhadrachalam , Hampi  and Rameshwaram .
The projects for development under the scheme are identified in consultation with the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations and are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable detailed project reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilization of funds released earlier.
This information was given by the Minister of State  of Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
Ministry of Labour & Employment
Draft Code on Social Security
The Code on Social Security, 2020  has been notified in the Gazette of India on 29.09.2020. Subsequently, the draft rules were also notified on 13.11.2020 inviting objections and suggestions from various stakeholders in terms of requirement of pre-publication under the various provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020.
This Ministry is in receipt of comments on draft rules from various individuals, organisations, trade unions, employers association including from Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers. All such comments are considered before finalizing the rules, as per pre-legislative policy of the Government.
This information was given by Minister of State  for Labour & Employment Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
Prime Minister's Office
PM celebrates India's Women Cricket team winning gold at Asian Games
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated India's Women Cricket team for winning gold medal at Asian Games 2022.
The Prime Minister said, "What a grand show by our cricket team as they clinch Women Cricket gold at Asian Games. The country rejoices in their incredible achievement. Our daughters are keeping tricolour flying high in the sporting arena too with their talent, grit, skill and teamwork. Congratulations for your great victory."
Ministry of Agriculture &
Farmers Welfare
Implementation of Swaminathan Committee Report
Government fixes-the Minimum Support Prices  of various agricultural crops on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices , after ascertaining the views of State Governments and Central Ministries/ Departments concerned. While recommending MSPs, CACP considers the cost of production and host of factors such as demand-supply situation, trends in domestic and international prices, inter-crop price parity, terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and the likely impact of MSP on consumers and overall economy along with rational utilization of scarce natural resources like land and water.
National Commission on Farmers headed by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan submitted its report in 2006. One of the recommendations of Commission was that MSP should be at least 50 percent more than the weighted average cost of production. This recommendation was not incorporated in the National policy for Farmers 2007. However, recently Government has increased the MSP for all Kharif and Rabi crops and other commercial crops for the season 2018-19 with a return of atleast 50 percent over cost of production, which was a historic decision by the Government.
This information was given by Minister of State for Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shri Parshottam Rupala.
APS/RCS
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Prime Minister's Office
PM strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Egypt
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Calling the attack barbaric the Prime Minister expressed deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives and extended India’s unwavering support to Egypt in the fight against all forms of terrorism.
(“Strongly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack on a place of worship in Egypt. Our deep condolences at the loss of innocent lives. India resolutely supports the fight against all forms of terrorism and stands with the people as well as Government of Egypt.”, the Prime Minister said.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Patents  Rules, 2020- streamlining of the requirements related to filing of Form 27 and submission of verified English translation of priority documents
Patentee would get flexibility to file a single Form-27 in respect of a single or multiple related patents. This will ease compliance burden & boost innovation
Authorized agents would be able to submit Form-27 on behalf of patentee. This will lead to greater ‘Ease of Doing Business’ for innovators
For filing Form-27, patentees would get 6 months, instead of current 3 months
If the priority document is available in WIPO's digital library, the applicant would not be required to submit the same in the Indian Patent Office
Streamline the requirements related to submission of verified English translation of priority documents
Consequent to Delhi High Court's Order dated 23-04-2018 in writ petition No. WPC- 5590 of 2015 in the matter of Shamnad Basheer Vs UOI and others, stakeholder consultation was undertaken in order to streamline the requirements related to submission of statement regarding the working of a patented invention on a commercial scale in India .
The Patents  Rules, 2020, which came into effect on 19 October 2020, have further streamlined the requirements related to filing of Form 27 and submission of verified English translation of priority documents, which is not in English language.
Important changes with reference to Form-27 and Rule 131 are as follows:
- Patentee would get flexibility to file a single Form-27 in respect of a single or multiple related patents
- Where a patent is granted to two or more persons, such persons may file a joint Form-27
- The patentee would be required to provide ‘approximate revenue / value accrued'
- Authorized agents would be able to submit Form-27 on behalf of patentees
- For filing Form-27, patentees would get six months, instead of current three months, from expiry of financial year
- Patentee will not be required to file Form-27 in respect of a part or fraction of the financial year
- While on one hand the requirements in Form-27 regarding submission of information by patentees have been eased, it may be noted that Section 146 of the Patents Act, 1970 empowers the Controller to seek information from the patentee, as may be deemed appropriate.
Important changes with reference to Rule 21 are as follows:
- If the priority document is available in WIPO's digital library, the applicant would not be required to submit the same in the Indian Patent Office
- Applicant would be required to submit verified English translation of a priority document, where the validity of the priority claim is relevant to the determination of whether the invention concerned is patentable or not.
These changes will streamline the requirements related to submission of statement regarding the working of a patented invention on a commercial scale in India  and the submission of verified English translation of priority documents.
YB/AP
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